One year ago, the county took over how free syringes were handed out to addicts, moved the exchange site to its Emeline Avenue clinic, and implemented a one-for-one needle exchange policy.

Health officials said over the past 10 months, the SSP took in 170,373 used syringes and handed out 165,712 sterile syringes. The report states that the SSP has 876 "clients." Sixty-four percent were men and 73 percent live in north Santa Cruz County. Sixty-one percent were between 25 and 44 years old, and 12 percent were 18 and 24 years old.

The Board of Supervisors recommended that the HSA reduce its Emeline clinic's hours from five days a week to two days a week, create additional kiosks around the county to ease the burden on residents who live near the Emeline clinic, and consider finding a nonprofit that would take over the SSP.

Supervisors also threw their support behind pumping more money into the public works department so that more professional cleanups happen.

Changes will not go into effect until the supervisors vote in June.

Supervisor Zach Friend said the "key takeaway" from Tuesday's meeting was that supervisors and health officials realize that having just one needle exchange location on Emeline Avenue, instead of several kiosks and mobile clinics spread out over a large area, creates a negative impact on residents who live in the Emeline neighborhood.

Brooke Crumpton was one of many concerned residents who spoke during a 45-minute public comment session. She told supervisors that her daughter stepped on a needle.

"As a parent you want to do everything you can to protect your children. When they play at a park at a birthday party and they have a needle that they stepped on, it's the worst day of your life," Crumpton said.

Resident Kim Salisbury said, "Asking an addict to dispose of needles properly is like asking a drunk driver to drive safe."

Take Back Santa Cruz's volunteer cleanup crews said they are still finding many dirty needles in public spaces during weekly beach, park, and river cleanups. About 4,500 littered syringes have been found within the past 16 months, according to Take Back Santa Cruz.

Health Services Agency officials claim that many of the needles found did not originated from their SSP.

TBSC wants the SPP to prove this is true by labeling all needles before they are distributed so that the needles can be accurately traced back to where they originated. But HSA officials said labeling would be too costly and would be a health code violation if the sterile seal is broken.

Supervisor Friend said he believes many of needles littered in public spaces indeed did not come from the SSP. He also agreed that labeling needles is not a viable option.

"They did extensive research. There is no FDA-approved needle maker that makes labeled needles," Friend said.

"This is a public health issue no matter where the needles are coming from," Friend said.

According to the report, the SSP's primary goal is, "To work in partnership with the community to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases associated with injection drug use, and to address the community's concern regarding improperly discarded syringes."